Grassroots experiences inspire political dreams

Leah Campbell, SSH’14, is finding her own niche in the political world after grassroots experiences at Oxfam America, the Barbara Lee Family Foundation and the Barbara Lee Political Office. Photo by Brooks Canaday.

Leah Camp­bell, SSH’14, set high stan­dards for her first co-​​op expe­ri­ence at North­eastern. Her ideal posi­tion, she decided, would help her develop grass­roots orga­ni­za­tional skills and over­seas cam­paign expe­ri­ence while also fos­tering her per­sonal and edu­ca­tional growth.

That first co-​​op in Spring 2013 at Oxfam America—whose mis­sion is to create lasting solu­tions to poverty, hunger, and social injus­tice throughout the world—turned out to be the per­fect match.

Camp­bell, a third-​​year com­bined major in polit­ical sci­ence and inter­na­tional affairs, worked in the organization’s com­mu­nity engage­ment depart­ment, where she helped a team of four orga­nize the national vol­un­teer group, which is spread across 15 U.S. cities. Camp­bell assisted in choosing these vol­un­teer leaders, dis­sem­i­nated newslet­ters to help pub­li­cize its events, and pro­vided addi­tional daily support.

Her co-​​op, she said, inspired her to pursue polit­ical sci­ence and lobby for food jus­tice and gender equality. “The grass­roots orga­ni­za­tion work that I was able to do has made me excited to bring what I’ve learned—from orga­nizing efforts to com­mu­ni­cating with the public—back to the class­room,” she explained.

Now, Camp­bell has taken this invalu­able expe­ri­ence with her to the Bar­bara Lee Family Foun­da­tion, a Cam­bridge, Mass.-based non-​​partisan orga­ni­za­tion that seeks to advance women’s equality and rep­re­sen­ta­tion in U.S. pol­i­tics. Camp­bell exam­ines the suc­cessful strate­gies women can­di­dates have used to get elected for a team that edu­cates women run­ning for elected office throughout the country and coor­di­nates with non­profit part­ners. In her role for the Bar­bara Lee Polit­ical Office, she pre­pares a daily media sum­mary and assists the team by tracking sev­eral can­di­dates’ cam­paigns, including: Michelle Nunn for Senate in Georgia and Wendy Davis for gov­ernor in Texas. She also helps update both the Foun­da­tion and Polit­ical Office websites.

Last month, Camp­bell told the Twit­ter­verse why she “hearts” co-​​op. “#iheart­coop because it helped me realize that there are still tremen­dous oppor­tu­ni­ties for young people today, even for human­i­ties majors!,” she tweeted.

These rewarding co-​​op expe­ri­ences have helped her iden­tify her ideal career path. “I would love to work in gov­ern­ment rela­tions for a non­profit or con­tinue with grass­roots orga­nizing,” she said. “I’m extremely com­fort­able inter­acting with people, so I’d love to be able to apply those kinds of skills to my career and work as an agent on the ground to get mes­sages out to the public.”

Not only is Camp­bell active in the com­mu­nity, but she’s also a trail­blazer on Northeastern’s campus. A former member of the North­eastern Choral Society and NUStage Musical The­atre, Camp­bell is a founding member of Pitch, Please!, Northeastern’s pre­mier all-​​women a cap­pella group, founded in the fall of 2012. She’s proud of the fact that since its founding, Pitch, Please! has since pro­duced an EP, per­formed at offi­cial uni­ver­sity events, and placed third in the Wild­card round for the 2013 Inter­na­tional Cham­pi­onship of Col­le­giate A Cappella.

Camp­bell has also taken advan­tage of other expe­ri­en­tial learning oppor­tu­ni­ties at North­eastern. Last summer she par­tic­i­pated in a Dia­logue of Civ­i­liza­tions pro­gram in Argentina, where she studied Spanish lan­guage and cul­ture. And this summer, she will par­tic­i­pate in a polit­ical communications-​​themed Dia­logue pro­gram in Greece.

About the Writer

Jordana Torres, CAMD ’12, held a co-op position in Northeastern’s Office of Marketing and Communications in 2011 and has returned as the department’s Project Manager. She has worked in the nonprofit field and in PR, and has found the perfect medium in higher education. Outside of work, she enjoys discovering new restaurants, watching corny horror movies, and playing with puppies.

News@Northeastern is Northeastern University’s primary source of news and information. Whether it happens in the classroom, in a laboratory, or on another continent, we bring you timely stories about every aspect of life, learning and discovery at Northeastern. Contact the news team